OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22850, 25 October 1939, Page 10

OBITUARY

MR ZANE GREY WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR AND ANGLER (mfTTXD PBSSS ISSOCIA.TTOK — COPYRIGHT.) (Received October 24. 7.10 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 23.

The death has occurred at his home, Altadena, California, of Mr Zane Grey. Mr Grey died from a heart attack.

Mr Zane Grey, widely known as aii author, traveller and enthusiastic angler, was born at Zanesville, Ohio, in January, 1875, and " educated at Zanesville High School and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he qalifled in 1896 as a dental surgeon. He pi’actised in New York from 1898 to 1904. The love of the wild and a prompting to write, then drew him away from his profession. His first book, “Betty Zane,” appeared in 1904. After

much wandering in undeveloped parts of the United States, he produced a series of vivid stories of life as he saw it in the wilds—“ The Spirit of the Border,” “The Last Trail,” “The Last of the Plainsmen,” “The Heritage of the Desert,” “Riders of the Purple Sage,” “Wildfire,” “To the Last Man,” “The Call of the Canyon,” and many ethers. His gift for description and for handling thrilling situations gave his books wide popular interest and the sales of his works were large in all English-speaking countries His books on fishing, at every form of which he was an expert, attracted a more serious circle of readers. Travelling frequently to remote parts of the world, he caught fish of all sorts and sizes under all conditions. Among the'books to which this pursuit gave origin are “Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas,” “Tales of the Angler’s El Dorado* and “Tales of Swordfish and Tuna.” His “angler’s El Dorado” was New Zealand, fishing conditions in and around which aroused his utmost enthusiasm. Angling, he once said, was like Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. Even if one never caught anything, there was always joy in the effort.

In September, 1930, Mr Grey successfully defended an action for £IOO,OOO brought against him by the widow of John R. Cook, who alleged that his book, “The Thundering Herd” l (1925) violated the copyright of Cook’s “Border and Buffalo,” published in 1907. , , MR H. S. H. WHITCOMBE aesMsa associattok telioham.) AUCKLAND. October 24.

The death has occurred of Mr Hugh Somerset Hawkes Whitcombe, aged 4 ?' manager 0 1 the Auckland branch of Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. Mr Whitcombe was son of Mr George Hawkes Whitcombe, one of the founders of the firm, which was established in Christchurch in 1880.